Orlando Bishop Moore football coach Matt Hedrick said last fall he had a sophomore offensive lineman from whom he was expecting big things.

Parker Boudreaux has not disappointed his head coach. His performance at this past weekend's Nike SPARQ Combine at Lake Brantley High came as no surprise to Hedrick, but there were plenty of other heads turned.

The 6-foot-4, 264-pound Boudreaux made a huge splash in the rain during Saturday's event, turning in the second-best SPARQ rating for an offensive lineman with a 83.49. Boudreaux's score was enhanced by his performance in the 40-yard dash, in which he was clocked in 5.13 seconds, and in the 5-10-5-yard shuttle run, in which he was timed at 4.48 seconds, both quite impressive times for a player of his stature.

Boudreaux also tossed the power ball 38 feet and had a vertical leap of 25.5 inches.

"I suppose I was a little surprised by the 5.1. That's pretty darned good, but he's such a good athlete. He's a big kid, but he's always been kind of a skill kid," Hedrick said. "He's a very, very hard worker. He does a lot of training on his own along with our lifting here, as well as the weightlifting team.

"He's pretty focused to try to play football at the next level and it's just kind of neat to see."

He echoed his coach's sentiments about focusing on playing college football.

"I feel like I've been working pretty hard. I've been in the weight room ... and that's where I see the progress," said Boudreaux, who also plays defensive end for the Hornets, but he favors the offensive side of the ball. "I just want to play at the next level.

"I did the 40 a couple of months ago and I ran a 5.2, so I was pretty happy to get the 5.1 on the laser."

The big fella has tremendous agility and his footwork has progressed even more so due to work he has put in with super trainer Tom Shaw.

He also packed on some extra weight since fall practice began in August, when he measured in at 6-foot-4, 240 pounds.

"Since spring I've gained about 40 pounds and I've actually gained good weight," Boudreaux said, "because when I was 230, I ran a 5.2-5.3 and since I've been training with Tom Shaw I've gotten down to a 5.1 while weighing 270."

But the physical attributes are not the only areas of improvement and he's worked diligently with personal coach Brian Stamper, who is a member of Shaw's staff, as well as with Bishop Moore offensive line coach Mike Knight to perfect his skills. Bishop Moore does not do a lot of passing in it's wing-T offense, so working on his pass blocking skills on the side have become a focus.

"He's potentially as good as anyone we've had, or possibly even better," Hedrick said. "He's not a great technical player yet, but he improved a lot during the year. He's got great feet, but learning how to use them to block people and gain leverage and all of that stuff, he's still learning. He's learning the game."

Given his physical attributes, Boudreaux can get away with some of his lapses in technique, but he's well aware of what he needs to do to hone his skills.

"I do the best at run blocking and that's most of my highlight film ... at Bishop Moore, we don't run the type of spread offense a lot of others do, but I do have some pass blocking in [the highlights] and I have pretty good technique in both of them," Boudreaux said. "I'm just still working on all of it."

His performance this past weekend will certainly garner attention, and he was named to the Nike All-Combine Team as one of the top offensive linemen. He has big asperations for his college future and he's certainly gotten things kick-started in a big way.

It's early, but never too early for prospects to be thinking about a college future.

"I feel really excited and happy that I performed that well," Boudreaux said of the SPARQ camps. "I didn't really think I'd perform that well.

Coming out of Bishop Moore, Boudreaux will be an extremely sound football technician by the time he graduates. Hedrick and his staff are some of the best coaches in state at getting the most out of their players.

Boudreaux is just anxious to get the process started.

"Coach Hedrick, he pulls me out of class whenever he can to meet the coaches when they come by the school," Boudreaux said. "He's doing a pretty good job of helping me get attention ... and then Coach Knight has been a huge help, too, and I really appreciate it."

This time, something strange and wonderful happened. The skies cleared, the rain stopped and the starving blind man gorged himself on a much-needed victory and finally regained his sight ¿ the vision of making the playoffs.